The Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University’s Center for International Development invites applications for resident fellowships in sustainability science for the University’s academic year beginning in September 2011. The fellowship competition is open to advanced doctoral and post-doctoral students, and to mid-career professionals engaged in research or practice to facilitate the design, implementation, and evaluation of effective interventions that promote sustainable development. Applicants should describe how their work would contribute to “sustainability science,” the emerging field of use-inspired research seeking understanding of the interactions between human and environmental systems as well as the application of such knowledge to sustainability challenges relating to advancing development of agriculture, habitation, energy and materials, health and water while conserving the earth’s life support systems. This year we will give some preference to applicants who address the challenges related to meeting human needs for water or food/agriculture/land use in the context of sustainable development.
Eligibility for scholarship:
The Sustainability Science Fellowships are open to advanced doctoral and post-doctoral students, and to mid-career professionals engaged in research or practice that advances the goals of the program (see above). Prospective fellows should have a focused personal research or writing objective that is consistent with those goals. In addition, applicants should be interested in spending some of their time as fellows in collaborations with other fellows and faculty in the program in ways that will advance the interdisciplinary, problem-driven agenda of sustainability science more broadly. The Fellowships are tenable at Harvard during the University’s academic year beginning in September 2011. Applications for the mid career fellowships are invited from individuals in governmental, non-governmental, private organizations, or academia with at least five years of professional experience doing work involved in linking science and practice for sustainable development. Applications for the post doctor fellowships are welcome from recent recipients of the Ph.D or equivalent degree. (Applicants must have completed their Ph.D. between 2006 and July 2011.) Applicants for a doctoral fellowship must currently be enrolled in a doctoral program and have passed their qualifying exams (completed coursework and passed oral and/or written exams) by July 2011. Applicants whose doctoral programs do not require qualifying exams must have completed all the required coursework for the Ph.D., since fellows will not be doing course work while at Harvard. Applications are solicited from individuals working in the natural and social sciences as well as relevant professions. Special funding for the Giorgio Ruffle Fellowships in Sustainability Science is available to support citizens of Italy or developing countries who are therefore especially encouraged to apply
Application form: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/pdfs/centers-programs/centers/cid/ssp/docs/grants-fellowships/fellows/application.htm
How to apply:
Fellowship applications will be evaluated according to the criteria listed below. No proposal is expected to meet all of these criteria, but those scoring high on many of the criteria will be more likely to succeed in the competition.
- Prior success and potential contribution of the applicant to scholarship or practice of sustainability science;
- Project significance: the potential impact of the research project on sustainability science scholarship or practice (note that the means used to pursue the research may be grounded in a single discipline or may be multidisciplinary; the requirement is that the results of the work contribute to the field of problem-inspired work on human-environment interactions that we call “sustainability science”);
- Problem-driven relevance: the ways in which successful completion of the project would contribute to solving practical problems of sustainable development. We are interested in work relevant to any significant problem of sustainability, e.g. relevant to any dimension of Kofi Annan’s “WEHAB” (Water, Energy, Health, Agriculture, Biodiversity) agenda for the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. For the 2011-12 competition, however, we will give some preference to applicants whose work addresses challenges of innovation for sustainable development, with special attention to innovation in the energy, health and agricultural sectors.
- Developing world component: this could include north-south relations; comparative work; be solely based in a developing country; work focusing on implications for the developing world of an issue such as governance, trade, or globalization, etc.);
- Involves field work in the developing world;
- Develops institutional links with an academic or practitioner/ applications/ problem-solving oriented institution in the developing world;
- Provides synergies with a regional center at Harvard, e.g. centers for Latin America, Asia, Africa
- Diversity: The Program will attempt to select a group of fellows from a range of academic disciplines and nations whose work will focus on a variety of topics. Recipients may include people with degrees in the sciences, economics, law, government, public policy, public health, medicine, design, and the full array of humanities. Their research topics will be equally varied. Interdisciplinary research projects are encouraged, although this is not a requirement for the fellowship. Candidates with interests in approaching sustainability issues through a single discipline are therefore also encouraged to apply.
The last date to apply is December 1, 2010
Source: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid/programs/sustsci/grants-fellowships/fellows/fellowships-in-sustainability-science#8
